Beginnings
by lilred15
Summary: The turtle's lives are going to drastically change. Old, but unfamiliar enemies, new friends, and the struggle for happiness.
1. Chapter 1

**First TMNT fic and second fanfiction I've done(or started). Don't know how this is gonna work out, but I'll give it a go anyways. If you like it and think it should be continued please let me know. :)**

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"Mikey! Whatch your shell!" Raph roared, and sent one of his sais into the neck of a foot soldier who was sneaking up behind Michealangelo with a katana raised above his head.

Michealangelo turned and saw the dead foot soldier, and then turned back to Raphael, grinning sheepishly, "Haha, thanks bro, I owe ya one."

"Just pay attention," Raph growled. He was now trying to defend himself from about fifteen foot soldiers with only one sai.

Mikey nodded, and turned to face off against his own set of foot soldiers. He guessed overall there were probably around thirty to thirty-five of them. The odds weren't good, Raph was right he needed to focus. Michealangelo began to spin his chucks wildly, daring any foot to come near him. Mikey was usually good natured, but when anyone threatened him or his family, he showed no mercy, espescially when his opponent was a member of the foot, or the purple dragons.

Raph was eyeing Mikey out of the corner of his eye, thankful that his little brother was now taking their situatiion seriously. "Ahh!" Raph let out a yell of surprise. He had let his gaurd down when he was checking on Mikey and one of the foot had managed to slice his bicep open with a katana. "Your gonna pay for that," Raph threatened, jumping in the air and landing a roundhouse kick to the foot soldier's jaw, effectively knocking him out and sending him flying into three of his foot buddies. Raphael went into a frenzy, kicking, punching, and slashing his way through the foot soldiers.

Michealangelo, seeing that his brother was ready to end this, also stepped up his ferocity, making sure each of his strikes were deadly and accurate.

only about two thirds of the foot were left standing, and they slowly began to back off.

"Yeah, that's right" Raph yelled, "Run away!"

The foot soldiers retreated to the edge of the roof, but before leaving one of them threw a shruikin with deadly force towards Raphael.

Raph didn't even have time to blink before he felt a thud in his plastron. He looked down to see the shruikin embedded a couple centimeters into his plastron. Anyone else would have been killed, but being a turtle, Raphs plastron stopped the deadly little weapon before it could cause any serious damage.

Raphael wanted to go after the one who threw it, but when he looked up the foot soldiers were running across the rooftops, and out of sight.

He let out a growl of annoyance, and ripped the shruikin from his plastron and threw it to the side. It landed a few feet away, clattering to a standstill on the rooftop.

"Dude, are you okay?' Mikey asked, running up behind Raph.

Raph nodded his head indicating the small puncture mark in his plastron.

"Whoa man" Mikey said, "Lucky were turtles huh?"

"Yeah, lucky..." Raph snorted. "Come on lets go home, the others are probably wonderin' where the shell we're at."

"You think they will be mad the pizza is ruined?" Mikey asked while gazing at Raphael's arm.

"You know what mikey? I dont car...Hey!" Raph yelled grabbing his arm, and yanking it away from mikey. "Don't touch that!"

"Bro that looks pretty bad, " Mikey said, now a little worried."

"M'fine," Raph said aggressively, "Let's just go."

"Alright." Mikey said, holding his hands up. "I'll just let Donnie deal with it," Mikey uttered under his breath.

"Come on!' Raph yelled, already on the next rooftop headed for home.

Mikey was about to follow, but his attention was drawn to the shruikin on the rooftop. "Probably shouldn't leave this lieing around," He said to himself. He put the weapon in his waistband and leaped off the roof, trying to catch up with Raph before he got too far behind.

* * *

Raph and Mikey entered the lair to be greeted by a frowning leonardo who was standing in the living room with his arms crossed. "Where in the shell have you two been?" Leo snapped. "You left for pizza over two hours ago!"

"Raph?" Donnie questioned, getting up from his seat on the couch. "What happened to your arm?"

"Look Leo, were sorry," Mikey said. "We were on our way home and we totally got ambushed."

"By who?" Leo asked, his eyes blazing with anger.

"Who d'ya think fearless?' Raph snorted. He was now trying to wave Donnie away from him, "It's just a scratch Don, leave it."

Mikey quickly intervened before Leo got too upset, "It was the foot, but don't worry Leo, we won, were fine."

Leonardo was fuming. "Fine?" he asked, his anger rising. "You could have been killed! I can't even let you two out to go get food without there being some sort of catastrophe." As he said this he looked at Raph who was unsuccessfully trying to staunch the flow of blood on his right arm with his left hand. "And you!" Leo yelled, pointing a finger at Raphael, "You are so...so...Reckless! Irresponsible! Careless! take your pick!"

"You know what Leo?" Raph said, lightly pushing Donnie away, who was now trying to tie a bandage around Raph's bicep. "Screw you."

With that said, Raph turned and stalked towards the entrance of the lair.

"Bro where are you going?" Mikey asked worriedly.

"Out." Raph growled.

"Raph, wait!" Donnie yelled, his hands full of bandages, 'Your arm..." But it was no use, Raph had already exited the lair, ig noring his brothers' please for him to stop.

"Dude!" Mikey said angrily, rounding on his oldest brother, 'That was SO not called for."

"I'm tired of him always rushing into things," Leo responded. "And this time he dragged you into it."

"Leo!" Mikey practically yelled. "We went out to get some pizza, and he didn't drag me into it, it was my idea. And he didn't rush into anything, we were attacked!"

Leo's face slowly turned from angry to apologetic. "Mikey I..."

"Save it, Leo" Mikey said angrily. He turned and stormed up the stairs towards his room, but stopped about halfway up and addressed his brother.

"You know, Raph saved my life tonight. I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him, and you had the right to accuse him of being careless? And you know what? I'd bet money that he got that cut on his arm when he was distracted by trying to help me. If anyone was being reckless or irresponsible it was me."

Mikey turned and continued walking to his room. "Next time get your facts straight," he said angrily before slamming his door shut and disappearing from view.

Leo sank to a seat on the couch, and glanced at Donnie who just gave him an angry look and headed towards the lab.

"Aw, not you too, Don" Leo complained.

"You really messed up tonight Leo," Don said. "Why do you always have to push him away? One day he's not gonna come back."

"I know," Leo said, palming his face, "I'm sorry, I overreacted."

"Yea you did," Donnie agreed. "But I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

Leo just nodded his head, feeling completely ashamed of himself.

"If he's not back soon" Donnie said ,"Somebody needs to go find him. He's lost quite a bit of blood."

Leo nodded feeling even worse. Not only had he wrongly accused Raph of acting rashly, but he caused him to leave the lair when he was injured. If anything happened to him, he would never forgive himself.

"I'll go look for him myself if he's not back within the hour," Leo said. "We need to talk anyways.'

Donnie nodded, and headed to the lab leaving Leo alone in the living room with his thoughts.

'I can be such a jerk sometimes," Leo said to himself. "I hope Raph will forgive me."

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**Just the beginning, I don't like to rush into things. Please please please leave a review if you like it and thing it should be continued. I have a bad habit of leaving things unfinished if I feel no one likes my work. Even if you hate it let me know ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

Raphael flew across New York City's rooftops as fast as his feet would carry him, trying to blow off some steam. Leo just makes him so angry sometimes. "What's his problem?" Raph asked himself.

Raph shook his head trying to shake his thoughts and feelings away. He didn't want to get too upset, but if he kept thinking about it, then that's exactly what will happen.

Suddenly he was distracted by a high pitched scream, "Help!"

Raphael immediately slid to a stop, and searched for the source of the noise. It definately sounded feminine, and from the sound of it she was probably being attacked. Raphael pulled out his sais, spinning them on his fingers, and crept up to the edge of the roof. Directly below him was an alley, and sure enough there were five purple dragons terrorizing a woman who looked to be around twenty-one.

One of the thugs was digging around in the woman's purse, and another was man-handling the woman. Raph didn't wait to see what was gonna happen next, he immediately jumped into action. He took a flying leap off of the roof, and landed on the guy's back who was hurting the young lady. The woman let out another scream, and the thug gave a grunt of surprise and attempted to throw Raphael off of him. Raph ceased the thugs efforts with a sai handle to the temple, knocking him out cold. Raph looked doewn at the motionless figure, "That'll teach ya to manhandle a lady, pal" He said gruffly.

The other four purple dragons looked at each other, and then attacked with loud yells and curses. Raph flipped over the first thug and landed a kick to one of the gang member's chest. One of them threw a punch at Raphael's head which he quickly dodged, and then grabbed the guys arm, flipping him over on his back with a thud. Raphael then side stepped a knife strike and grabbed the guy's wrist, snapping it, making him drop the weapon to the ground, and retreat clutching his arm in pain.

Another thug attacked, and Raphael dropped and kicked the thug's legs out from under him. He quickly got up and grabbed the thug off the ground pulling him close, "Get lost, before I change my mind about lettin ya live."

The thug nodded repeatedly, and Raph let go of him. The gang members scrambled and ran out of the alley, afraid Raphael would indeed change his mind about killing them.

Raph watched them go and snorted, "Hmph, losers."

Raphael walked over to where one of the thugs had dropped the woman's purse, and he bent over to pick it up. He was just fixing to turn around and offer it back to her when he heard a distinct click.

He slowly turned and looked at the woman he just saved. She was standing, trembling about ten feet away with a small handgun pointed in Raph's direction.

Raph slowly raised the purse and took a step towards her, "Here, I was just..."

"Don't!" the woman yelled, interrupting him. "Don't come near me!"

"Look, lady, " Raph said with his hands slightly raised "Don't shoot."

"What are you?" She asked, horrified. "Your some kind of..of..Monster!"

Raphael was somewhat taken aback. He had just saved this woman and she was now aiming a gun at him. He knew he wasn't the best lookin guy around, but geez she could be a little more grateful.

"Ma'am, Im not gonna hurt ya, I just..."

Raphael was interrupted by a loud bang, and he grunted from an excruciating pain in his right shoulder.

"Ahh..W-what did you do that for?" He asked, dropping to one knee, and clutching his shoulder that was now adding more blood to his already damaged appendage. He looked up at the woman. She was backing up with the gun still raised, pointing at Raph."

Raph picked her purse back up, and tossed it at her feet, hoping she'd just take it and go.

The woman bent down, never taking her eyes or the gun off of Raph, and picked up her bag. She slowly backed up out of the alleyway. when she got to the street, she turned and sprinted away as fast as she could.

Raphael groaned, and dragged himself painfully to his feet. "Well that's a first," He complained to himself, "I've never actually been shot by someone I just rescued."

He inspected his injured shoulder, and hissed in pain and aggravation. "unbelievable, I risked my neck for her, Leo is definately gonna kill me."

Raph walked to the nearest fire escape and slowly and painfully hauled himself up. He made it to the roof and settled himself on the ledge overlooking the city, not wanting to go back home and face his leader brother just yet.

His thoughts drifted back to the woman. He wasn't expecting a thankyou, but he wasn't exactly expecting her to shoot him either. Raph raised his good arm and looked at his hand, "Aww, who am I kiddin?" He thought to himself. "I can't blame the lady, look at me, Im a freak. I probably scared the crap out of her." Raph slumped against the wall dejectedly, "I probably would'a shot me too."

He continued sitting on the ledge looking out at the city, not even bothering to move when it started to drizzle, looking the picture of sadness.

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**Sooo, Please review, good or bad. I really can't write without feedback, no motivation, ya know?**


	3. Chapter 3

**"What's a gal gotta do to get some reviews around here?" hahaa, anyone recognize that quote? (a couple words are changed of course)**

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A crack of thunder, so loud that it could even be heard down in the sewers, resonated throughout the lair, effectively waking Leo from his light doze.

Startled, Leo looked around, rubbing his face, "Aw...please tell me I didn't fall asleep."

Leo looked at the clock above the television, and sure enough he had been asleep for about four hours. It was now 5 am which meant that Raph had left the lair almost five hours ago. He quickly ran up the stairs to Raph's room to see if his brother had snuck in without him noticing. He reached Raph's door and slowly opened it with only a small creak.

"Raph?" he whispered quietly into his brother's room, "Raph, you in here?"

He didn't recieve an answer, so Leo reached over and flicked the light switch, illuminating the room. Sure enough, his brother's bed was empty. Raph hadn't come home.

Leo didn't know whether to be worried about Raph, or angry with him. He guiltily decided to be worried, after all he was the one to make Raph leave in the first place. Hr half jogged back down the stairs and was heading towards the door to start the search for his missing brother when he heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Leo turned and walked to the kitchen hoping the source of the noise was Raphael.

"raph?" leo questioned upon entering the kitchen, only to be immediately dissappointed by the sight of his other brother, Don.

Don looked up from where he was starting to make some coffee, "nope, just me."

"Oh," Leo said, "What are you doing up so early? I thought you were Raph."

"The thunder woke me up, and I couldn't go back to sleep. It's been storming all night." Don replied, looking over at his oldest brother with a slight frown, "Has Raph not come home yet?"

"No." Leo sighed

Donatello put down his mug and turned to look at Leo, "I thought you said you were going to go look for him."

"I was," Leo said looking sheepish, "but i sorta fell asleep. I was hoping he might've come back without me noticing, but he hasn't"

"Have you tried calling his cell?" Don asked, slightly worried.

"No," Leo said, "Maybe you should. he probably won't answer if he sees I'm calling and he's still upset with me."

Donny nodded and whipped out his shell cell, dialing Raph's number.

Leo looked on, hoping Raph would actually answer. After the long seconds of silence he was losing hope until...

"Hey Raph," Don said, "Where ya at bro?"

...

"Are you okay?" Donny asked.

Leo held his breath, and tried to get Donny to clue him in on where raph was at.

Donny, however, just ignored him and continued on with his conversation, "Well you've been gone all night."

...

"ugh-huh" Don said nodding

...

"Yah, I know Raph, but you need to come home, okay? I need to take a look at that cut on your arm."

...

"And you better not have been sitting out in the rain all night," Don lectured.

...

"Well that's my job, and you make it harder for me when all I'm doing is trying to help."

...

"It's okay, just head back home now, and I might forgive you," Donny said, smiling.

...

"Ok bro, see you then." Don said giving Leo a reassuring nod.

...

"Bye." Don clicked the phone shut, and looked at Leo. "He's on his way home right now."

Leo sighed in relief, "Is he alright? Is he still mad at me? He wasn't sitting in the rain all night was he?"

Don chuckled at Leo's rapid questioning, "He says he's fine, he still seems kinda ticked, and he better not have or I'm going to kick his shell."

Leo nodded, "Did he say how long he'll be?"

Don shrugged, "No, but it could be awhile, because of the storm."

"Yea, your right," Leo agreed, "I guess I'll go wait in the living room."

Donny smiled, and grabbed two mugs of coffee, shoving one at Leo, "I'll come with you."

* * *

A crack of thunder, that sent vibrations through Raph's shell, startled him awake.

"Huh?" Raph said to himself, looking around, "What time is it?"

He pulled out his cell and looked at the built in clock, "uh-oh, 5am?"

"How did I fall asleep in this?" Raph asked himself, looking around at the downpour, and feeling its icy drops on his skin. His attention was drawn to his blood soaked arm where he had been cut, and then later shot.

He wondered if he fell asleep or if he had simply passed out from blood loss. Either way, he knew he needed to get back to the lair. Sitting around in the rain wasn't doing him or his injuries any good.

Raphael was hauling himself to his feet with is good arm when he felt his cell vibrating. He pulled it from his waistband, rolling his eyes, "Gee, I wonder who this could be?"

"What?" He growled, not even checking the caller ID, expecting it to be Leo.

...

"Oh, umm...I'm not really sure." Raph said, caught off guard by Donny's voice instead of his older brother's.

...

"yah, m'fine." Raph grumbled, looking at his arm.

...

"Yah well, Leo really pissed me off. Where does he get off callin' me reckless? I just can't stand him sometimes."

...

"He's always on my shell, the 'perfect leader', he doesn't even listen to my side of things, he just jumps down my throat every chance he gets."

...

"yah, ok, I'm comin right now."

...

'Geeez Donny, stop worrying so much, your goin all doctor mode on me."

...

Raph sighed, "yah, I know yer only tryin to help, bro, I'm sorry."

...

Raph chuckled. "Uh-huh, you better, or I'll make ya," Raph said jokingly. "Anyways, I'll be home in a bit, I'm headed that way now."

...

"Alright, bye."

...

Raph clicked the phone shut, and tucked the phone back into his belt. "Man, I wonder how ticked he's gonna be when he sees I got myself another injury." Raph wondered to himself. "And Leo will probably never let me out of the lair again...not like he could stop me, but still..."

Raph sighed, and lightly touched his wound, 'Damn, that hurts," He hissed.

"Oh, well, I'm gonna have to face the music sometime. Better sooner than later, I guess."

And With that thought, Raph leaped to the next rooftop, making his way back to the lair, hoping that his brothers wouldn't be too pissed with him.

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**Ok well there's chapter three. review anyone? :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow, I got a review...the world must be coming to an end....hahaa. Thankyou though. soooo, I'm gonna put up chapter 4, hopefully it wont stink.**

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When he heard the door to the lair being opened Leo immediately rose from the couch. "Raph?" He questioned, "That you?"

Sure enough Raph rounded the corner, completely ignored Leo, and headed up to his room.

"Where are you going?" Leo asked. "I was hoping we could talk."

"Not now Leo," Raph grunted. "I'm going to bed."

Donnie jumped from the couch, almost spilling his coffee all over himself. "Um, no you are not Raph. Your arm looks worse than before. You are coming to my lab so I can patch you up before it gets infected."

Raph groaned. "Can't this wait 'till morning?"

"No." Don stated. "And besides, it is the morning. So get to the lab."

Raphael looked pleadingly at him.

"Now." Donnie barked, leaving no room for argument.

Raph sighed, stomped back down the stairs, brushed past Leo, and headed towards the lab with Donnie following close behind. Leo stood there for a few moments wondering if he should try to talk to Raph now or let him cool down a bit. After a few seconds he sighed, and decided he better go say what he needed to while Raph was being forced to stay in one place.

He entered the lab nervously, and Raph immediately averted his eyes pretending he didn't see his older brother.

"Look Raph," Leo said awkwardly. "I was out of line earlier, and I didn't mean anything I said."

"Obviously ya meant it Leo." Raph said, still not looking at him.

Leo sighed. "Raph I..."

"Ow!" Raph exclaimed, interrupting Leo. "Damnit Donnie!" Raph yelled, flinching away from his brother who had gone into full doctor mode; poking and prodding at his arm.

"Sorry Raph, but I have to check this out." Donnie explained, while he continued to examine his brother's wound. "What cut you exactly?" Donnie asked.

"Um...a katana I think." Raph said hesitatingly, knowing his brother was going to find his other wound any second.

"Hmmm..." Donnie hummed while continuing his examination.

Leo looked worried. "Is it bad?" He asked.

Raph rolled his eyes, "It's fine fearless."

"Yea, well, I didn't ask you I asked Donnie." Leo replied.

"I don't know," Donnie said, squinting at Raph's arm. "It almost looks like two different wounds."

"Really?" Leo asked. "Raph did you get cut twice?" Leo questioned.

"Well I..." Raph started, but was interrupted by Donnie.

"No, This second wound is smaller, and deeper." Donnie said, while prodding the gash. "Almost as if..." Donnie cut himself off, and quickly grabbed a large pair of tweezers.

"As if what, Donnie?" Leo asked anxiously.

Raph squirmed in his seat guiltily.

"Hold still Raph." Donnie reprimanded. "I don't know Leo," Donnie said. "It looks just like...What the Shell?!" Donnie exclaimed, raising his tweezers up to examine a small metallic object that he had extracted from Raph's arm.

"What is it?" Leo practically yelled.

"A bullet." Donnie said in shock. "It's a bullet."

"You were shot?!" Leo yelled accusingly at Raph. "When?"

"Last night." Raph said, grimacing and clutching his arm. When Donnie had removed the bullet a fresh flow a blood was set loose, along with a good amount of pain. He felt nauseated, and weak, as if he might fall over any second.

"Raph?" Leo questioned, noticing his brother wasn't looking too good.

Donnie dropped the tweezers and laid a hand on Raph's shoulder to keep him from falling over. "Leo, hand me some bandages. I need to put some pressure on this wound."

"Here." Leo said, handing Donnie a handful of bandages. "He's going to be okay right?" Leo questioned anxiously.

"M'fine." Raph said weakly.

"Uh-huh..." Leo said skeptically. "Donnie?"

"He'll be fine Leo, but he's lost a lot of blood." Donnie turned to his injured brother, "Raph you're going to need stitches, and we need to get some fluids into you."

"Yeah, yeah, just do it already so I can get some sleep." Raph grumbled.

Donnie smiled, and went across the room to gather his supplies, "Well at least you're still acting like yourself."

"Ha ha." Raph said sarcastically.

Just then Mikey walked into the lab rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Dudes, what's all the noise about." He asked, looking around. "Man bro, that looks gnarly." Mikey said, referring to Raph's arm.

"Mikey," Leo addressed his youngest brother sternly. "You didn't tell us the foot were carrying guns last night when they attacked you."

Mikey looked confused, "They did?"

Leo looked exasperated. "Yes they did, and they shot Raph."

"What?!" Mikey exclaimed, looking at Raph. "I didn't see...where...are you alright?" Mikey asked, apparently finding it difficult to conjure up a complete sentence.

"Leo," Raph groaned. "Stop hounding him. Those sorry excuses for ninjas weren't packin' heat."

"Well then how do you explain that bullet in your arm Raphael?" Leo asked in a no nonsense voice.

"I sort of had a run in with some purple dragons last night after I left." Raph said evasively.

"And?" Leo prompted.

"They were robbing some chick in an alley. I couldn't just do nothin', who knows what they would have done to her. I jumped in to help, and one of 'em got off a lucky shot." Raph explained, conveniently leaving out that the lucky shot came from the girl that he risked his life for. He didn't want his brothers to blame the girl. It wasn't her fault. She was scared and she probably thought he was some wierdo who was going to try and harm her.

Leo stood with his arms crossed looking at Raph, his eyesd blazing with anger.

Raph sighed. "Look Leo, call me reckless, or careless, or whateva, but I wasn't gonna stand by and watch that girl get killed."

Leo's eyes softened, he realized his harsh words earlier had really got to his brother. "I'm not angry with you Raph, you did the right thing."

Raph looked up at his older brother in surprise, and nodded, grateful that Leo actually understood for once.

"Awwww, dudes." Mikey said, interrupting the short silence with a grin. "Are you two gonna kiss?"

"Shut up Mikey!" Raph said taking a light swing at his brother.

"okay, okay," Donnie said chuckling. "You need to rest Raph. I'd prefer if you just slept here for now. I don't want you getting up for a while."

"Fine." Raph complied, too tired to argue. He leaned back and closed his eyes, ready to catch some z's.

"Hey bro," Mikey said, indicating Raph's belt. "Where's your other sai?"

Raph's eyes popped open in alarm, and he looked down at his belt. Sure enough, one of his sais was missing. "Aw, damnit!" Raph cursed. "I must'a dropped it in the alley."

"It's okay Raph." Leo said, putting his hands on Raph's shoulders to stop him from getting up. "I'll go look for it. Where were you exactly?"

Raph looked up trying to remember, "Uhm, the alley on 23rd I think."

"Across from the old fire station?" Leo questioned

Raph thought for a second, "Yea, that's the one."

"Okay, I'll be back in a bit." Leo said.

Raph nodded, "Thanks."

"No problem." Leo replied, picking up his katanas, and exiting the lab.

"Come on Mikey." Donnie said, grabbing his brother's arm. "Let's go in the kitchen or something, Raph needs to rest."

"Okay." Mikey said, smiling at Raph. "I'm glad you're okay bro."

"Thanks Mike." Raph replied.

Donnie and Mikey exited the lab, and Donnie softly shut the door behind him, leaving Raph alone in the peace and quiet.

Raph sighed, and once again leaned back and closed his eyes. He was beat, the night's events had really worn him out. He started to think about the girl in the alley, and how she had shot him after he had rescued her. He couldn't put his finger on why, but for some reason he was really bothered by the whole incident. Thankfully, he was asleep within minutes, and the night's worries could no longer trouble him.

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**Ughh, for some reason that chapter was hard to get out. Please review and tell me what you think. The plot should thicken in the upcoming chapters. **


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